L’Odyssée de Cartier

For the very first time, Cartier has decided to create a cinema epic focusing on its history. An ode to the timelessness of the House of Cartier, the film takes the tempo of the continual motion of creation. The images tell viewers of the wondrous horizons which Cartier has traveled for the past 165 years.
The tale of this journey in time traces the encounters between a panther, the Emblematic Cartier animal, and the people, places and worlds that have founded Cartier History.
At the start, the Cartier brothers opened their boutiques in three main cities: Louis ran the Paris boutique (opened in 1899) at 13 rue de la Paix, while Jacques oversaw the British operations out of the 175 New Bond Street boutique in London and Pierre developed the New World from the boutique on New York’s Fifth Avenue (opened in 1909). All three Cartier brothers shared an unassailable passion for exploring the world which prompted fabulous encounters and friendships in countless countries.

The scene opens in Place Vendôme. Possibly dawn. Almost as in a Melville novel, except that no human presence disturbs the still, tranquil city. A flickering display of shadow and light harks back to the early days of cinematography. Fittingly, the spectacle unfolds from behind a Cartier window. A seemingly frozen tableau: beneath a classically proportioned dome a big cat is regally poised, a shade lighter than the star of Jacques Tourneur’s panther-themed horror movie…

Cartier hired Bruno Aveillan to direct the film. A graduate of Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, Mr Aveillan is one of the world’s leading advertising film directors. International supermodel Shalom Harlow plays the female lead in the final scene. Young Chinese stylist Yiqing Yin, a graduate of Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, specially designed a made-to-measure red dress for the character, featuring a flowing skirt and handmade fitted ruched draped bustier.

International shooting began in Prague in June 2011 to finish in Paris in late September. The snow scenes were filmed in the Italian Dolomites and the desert scenes in Spain. Live animals were used for the shoots; in addition to the panthers, an Asian elephant made an appearance in Spain.

Filming took place in three locations in Paris: 13 rue de la Paix (outside by night), Place Vendôme (outside by night, with the Panther), and Grand Palais (inside by night in the stairwell, at dusk in the main building and on the rooftops).

2 March 2012 by Abdon Flores

 http://www.160grams.com/news/culture/lodysee-de-cartier